RGS invests in training, saves costs amid post-fiscal-cliff impacts

RGS, a management consulting firm and United States government contractor, recently signed an agreement to host public facilitation training courses by LSI, saving RGS close to $17,000 in professional development training that would have otherwise been postponed due to post-‘Fiscal-Cliff’ uncertainties. Given today’s financial climate and with the Fiscal Cliff decisions, companies and government agencies all over the country are experiencing changes to their human capital investments, including budget constraints for employee training and development. As a result, RGS – like other companies – must be selective in its training spending while still recognizing the value it brings to the firm’s 100+ associates and their training needs.

The firm was able to save costs by agreeing to a simple, economical training option that LSI offers to all clients and prospects – which is to allow LSI to use the client’s conference room space to conduct its public facilitation training. This option saves the costs of room rental and travel plus additional registration cost savings in exchange for offering its site to outside class participants.

Angela Thompson, Director of Human Resources and Administration at RGS, comments, “By doing this, we will be able to put 12 associates through this training with no major impact to our training budget except for their labor hours. We are saving close to $17,000 by allowing LSI to use our conference room space that probably wouldn’t have been used on those dates anyway. It is extremely convenient for our associates because they don’t need to travel out of their way to attend the class.”

Thompson encourages others to consider creative alternatives over limiting or delaying training opportunities by exploring options such as the one LSI offers. “We are a Department of Defense contractor, so we are still uncertain of how the whole Fiscal Cliff decisions will impact us,” Thompson explains. “ If we didn’t go with this option that LSI proposed, we probably couldn’t even think about sending associates to training until April when we have a better idea of what the climate will look like. Working with LSI on this has been a good arrangement for us.”

The RGS associates will begin facilitation training in March of this year. For more information on hosting LSI’s facilitation training to save costs, click here.